Category Archives: Unwarranted Rambles

Why do we give our kids a 2 month long summer vacation? By no means am I saying that we shouldn’t. The question is just that, why?

The winter vacation still makes sense. It’s the holidays and in most places in the US it’s freeze-if-you-step-out-of-the-house cold. But why 2 months for the summer? As kids, we’ve all had those amazing 2 month long vacations that we look forward to all year long. Then we grew up. And realized that just like cartoons and toys, society told us that we have outgrown our 2 month long summer vacations. It’s so wrong! For the first, let’s be conservative and say, 12 years of our life we’re given the 2 months as though it is our right. But no one tells you that the summer after your senior year of high school is your LAST 2-month summer ever. It’s the last time that you can spend every single day of those 2 months doing nothing but, well, whatever it is that you want.

I graduated high school a good 6 years ago and I think back to all the summers I spent doing nothing. They were absolutely wonderful. For the first handful of those summer vacations, I spent the whole time in India doing nothing. Now, it’s been well over 10 years since I’ve been to the motherland and I wonder when I’ll get the next chance. One thing is for sure, whatever chance I do get, I’ll be lucky if it’s 2 whole weeks.

I’m not saying that we should take summer vacations away from kids and keep them in school all year round. Never. That would be disastrous. We can, however, spread out the 60-days throughout the year. For example, Winter Break can be 3 weeks instead of 2 and the summer holidays 3 weeks long as well. Or whatever.

There is possibly nothing that a school-aged kid can do for 2 whole months that could be detrimental to him up bringing. Even the parents start going crazy by the end of Month 1. The older kids, teenagers, can work throughout the summer but, hey, what about taking some of their holidays and making their school days start later in the day?? I remember having to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for high school. That was pure torture.

It’s sad, really, because our education system is supposed to create the bright minds of the future. Prepare the next generation for what is to come and, yet somehow, it has failed to adapt to the changing norms of society. iSchool upgrade please?

I just don’t understand who came up with this 2 month summer vacation. Which brilliant guy decided this was a good idea? I’m sure it probably has some connection with farming and how summer used to be so hot and people would just stay indoors at the time or something of that sort. But what does it do to prepare our children for their future in the 21st century? All it does is lull them into a false sense of evergreen pastures of annual 2 month vacations for the rest of their lives.